WHAT IF?

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

What if the Lord had not been on our side? Let all Israel repeat: What if the Lord had not been on our side when people attacked us?

They would have swallowed us alive in their burning anger. The waters would have engulfed us; a torrent would have overwhelmed us. Yes, the raging waters of their fury would have overwhelmed our very lives.

Praise the Lord, who did not let their teeth tear us apart! We escaped like a bird from a hunter’s trap. The trap is broken, and we are free!

Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 124

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

What if?

It’s a question we use a lot, especially if we’re trying to plan for things that could happen or could have happened?

Here are a couple of real life examples in my world where I recently used the question, one where I tried to plan for what might happen and one where I was left to speculate as to what might have happened:

Example 1: In January, I had to travel overseas to Portugal where I arrive one day, board the ship the next, and leave within hours of embarking. This led me to have some “what if” questions for my supervisor.

What if one of my flights is delayed and/or cancelled and I am late getting into Portugal? Will the ship wait for me to arrive or will I miss it and have to return back to Norfolk?

What if they lose my luggage and they can’t get it to me before I go to sea? Do I go without all my clothes to change into and just wear the same outfit for a week?

Example 2: Three weeks ago, my wife and I were driving through a mall parking lot when all of a sudden a car sped through a lane in one of the parking areas and slammed into the passenger side of our car doing $6,000 in damage. Upon looking at the damage to the passenger side of my car, I began to ponder:

What if she had rammed into my wife’s door instead of the door behind her?

What if I had hit the gas more? Would I have avoided the collision?

What if she doesn’t have insurance to pay for all this?

Maybe you have your own “what if” question scenarios you could share. As we look at the 124th Psalm, we can see that people were asking the question, “What if?”, more than 2,000 years ago. As we look at what the psalmist wondered, I think we’ll see ourselves how we should be using the “what if” question all the time when we’re contemplating our lives, especially from a Christian perspective. Look at these words from our passage:

What if the Lord had not been on our side? Let all Israel repeat: What if the Lord had not been on our side when people attacked us?

They would have swallowed us alive in their burning anger. The waters would have engulfed us; a torrent would have overwhelmed us. Yes, the raging waters of their fury would have overwhelmed our very lives.

Praise the Lord, who did not let their teeth tear us apart! We escaped like a bird from a hunter’s trap. The trap is broken, and we are free!

Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

It’s obvious that the Israelites had been delivered from danger after being attacked. The assailants had to have been very formidable because the psalmist feels that destruction would have taken place had it not been for the Lord’s intervention. He asked, “What if the Lord had not been on our side? What if the Lord had not been on our side when people attacked us?”

He answered his own question after this saying, "They would have swallowed us alive in their burning anger. The waters would have engulfed us; a torrent would have overwhelmed us. Yes, the raging waters of their fury would have overwhelmed our very lives.”

So what changed the outcome?

It was the Lord who, as the psalmist states, “Did not let their teeth tear us apart.”

No, instead, the Israelites were liberated, set free from the “hunter’s trap”. In their time of trouble, the Israelites were rescued by the Lord.

Now, let’s use this in a present day context because it’s critical that we understand how this psalm and its focus on the “what if” question impacts our lives here in the 21^st century. Look now at this psalm as I restate in a way that relates to the Christian today:

What if the Lord had not been on our side? Let us all repeat: What if the Lord had not been on our side when we faced destruction from our sinfulness?

We would be living without hope, destined to burn in the hellfire of God’s wrath. At judgment, we would have been engulfed by flames and burned to ash. God’s fury would have overwhelmed and consumed us.

Praise the Lord, who was not willing to allow us to perish in our sin but instead offered all of us an escape from the wrath of God’s anger by offering His only Son up as a sin sacrifice, paying the penalty for sin once and for all. And because He saved us through Jesus, we were set free from condemnation and annihilation and presented with an inheritance of eternal life. All we need to do is place our faith and trust in Jesus as Savior.

Yes friends, our help is in the Lord who made the heavens and the earth, the Lord who saved us and gave us the final answers to the main “what if" question.

For if we ask, “What if I don’t accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior?”, then we know the answer. It’s simple. You have no hope and will face God’s wrath and judgment when this life is over.

But for those who place their belief in Jesus Christ as Savior, then the answer to the “what if” question becomes quite different. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16) and so the answer in this instance becomes, “They will live forever with God the Father and Jesus, His Son.

Tonight, if you haven’t asked yourself the “what if” question, I pray you will. I pray even more that you will choose the latter of the two answers and accept Jesus as Savior because I would love to see you join me for eternity with the very Lord who has saved us. It’s a life everlasting no one should want to miss.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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